Some people think retiring means they can leave their mess behind for someone else to clean up.

What would you do if a long-time tenant skipped out on disposing of hazardous waste, then told you to buzz off when you asked him to handle it?

Would you let it go?

Or would you get creative with a solution he couldn’t ignore?

In the following story, one property manager finds himself in this exact situation and decides that enough is enough.

Here’s what he did.

Rude business owner refused to dispose of hazardous waste

About 30 years ago, I worked as a property manager at a Commercial/ industrial building.

There was a gentleman who operated a machine shop from one of the warehouses in the back.

He occupied the space for decades before I got involved, and as far as I knew, he was respectful, friendly, and always paid the rent on time.

The trouble began when he decided to retire and close the business…

It took several days to move, but when it seemed to be vacant, I entered the space to assess the condition of the unit.

Initially, what was left was typical: A desk filled with miscellaneous office supplies, a couple of broken chairs, and some trash here and there, but in the corner, there was a large steel drum of used compressor oil.

The owner had left items behind, so eventually, he would return.

The barrel could hold about 210 litres (55 gallons) but was half full.

Nevertheless, this type of material has to be disposed of in a proper manner.

There are services that collect used oil, but at a significant cost.

At this time, he still had a company van parked outside with a flat tire so I thought surely he will be back soon to get it along with the barrel of oil.

Another week had passed so I decided to give him a call.

He gave some excuses but said he would take care of it soon. Of course nothing happened.

After he got rude, they found a way to make sure he took his items.

A couple of more weeks, a couple more calls until finally he snapped, told me to “****-off!” and hung up.

That’s when I decided it was time to get petty…

I had noticed that his van had been left unlocked and was virtually empty so I got a colleague to help and together we managed to get the barrel into the van.

We then threw the desk, the broken chairs and the trash in there too.

The man was extremely upset when he found out.

I then called a friend of mine who is a cop to give the gentleman a curtesy call informing him that he had 48 hours to move his van or it would be towed.

The very next day, he was there with a tow truck he had hired to collect the van.

I didn’t speak to him, but some other tenants who knew him told me he was very upset.

They suggested my solution was extreme and unwarranted, but I maintained that I was very patient with him until he crossed the line.

Wow! Funny how his leaving the van there worked against him.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit think about what happened.

This person delivered some abandoned oil to someone one time.

It definitely could’ve gone a different way.

They sure do.

Here’s a little sarcasm.

That takes a lot of nerve.

It serves the guy right because he was awfully rude when he didn’t need to be.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.